Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees says most members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru were impacted by Covid infections acquired in hospitals and care homes.

"It haunts us all," Marsh-Rees says.

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees explains that when her father died "first of all you're in shock", but then through social media you find out others in your area have a similar story.

Then you find out there are other people from other health boards and the picture builds, "this wasn't an isolated incident", she says.

"There was quite a regular occurrence of people going into hospital with one thing and not coming out or subsequently dying from Covid."

Marsh-Rees explains health and social care are devolved in Wales and that her group want to find out what happened and to bring about change.

They will use their lived experience to bring about that change, she says.

Image source, Family photo

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees is describing how her father Ian caught Covid in hospital.

She says he was sent to hospital to be treated for a gallbladder infection in October 2020.

"He was moved to an assessment area and was moved six beds within eight days across different wards," she says.

He ended up being exposed to the virus on a non-Covid ward in which 21 people were positive, 12 of whom died.

He was then released from hospital without being tested and died later that month, she says.

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, who leads Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, is next to appear.

She says her father, Ian Marsh-Rees, died after catching the virus while in hospital, aged 85.

The health board told her 13 patients on Mr Marsh-Rees's ward tested positive during his time there, as well as 14 members of staff.

Ms Marsh-Rees said it was "awful" to watch her father, who had been shielding at home for months to protect himself, "die gasping for breath".

She now wants to get answers for her father and other families in Wales.

• You can read more here

While we're waiting for the inquiry to resume, let's take a look back to the morning's first witness, Matt Fowler, co-founder of Covid Bereaved Families for Justice.

He said it was painful for loved ones who could attend his father's funeral because of a restriction on numbers.

Jane Morrison says the way funerals were handled was traumatic.

"If someone had been with a loved one at the end, they had a choice," she says.

"You can either come in and be with them at the end or you can go to the funeral. But you can't do both because you need to be in isolation."

She went on to describe how bodies were deemed to be contaminated and kept in sealed bags.

It meant many families were unable to dress their loved ones in something appropriate.

That's the end of her evidence and the inquiry will be back in 10 minutes.

Lisa Summers
BBC Scotland Health Correspondent

There have been more than 17,000 Covid deaths in Scotland. Jane Morrison, who lost her wife Jacky to Covid in 2020, is speaking for Scottish bereaved families as she gives evidence today.

Like others, they want to know what more could have been done to prevent these deaths and what can be done to stop it happening again.

Scottish ministers and officials, including the former first minister, have already given evidence and some familiar themes emerged that indicated a lack of planning in Scotland, as elsewhere in the UK.

Too much focus on flu, resources diverted to planning for Brexit and we've also had warnings that staff shortages in the NHS in Scotland are making it extremely difficult to plan for the future.

Scotland is holding its own public inquiry into the Covid pandemic but a series of issues and the resignation of its original chair have set it back.

The probe into Scotland's response to the coronavirus pandemic will begin its hearings in October.

All of the families hope that it, and the UK inquiry, will move swiftly to help them understand why their loved ones died.

Jane Morrison says the concern over hospital infection control was "particularly close to my heart" and the infection control plans she has seen only invited visitors to use alcohol gel to clean their hands.

She accepts these plans "were beefed up" after the pandemic started, but she highlights patients leaving the ward and meeting up with loved ones in the grounds of the hospital without masks.

There are vast differences between different health boards when it comes to infection control, she says, adding sometimes these differences are stark between hospitals within health boards.

She says it was more surprising that different wards had different infection control procedures within the same hospital.

While the UK Covid inquiry is well under way, the separate Scottish Covid-19 inquiry has spent just under £8m so far, without holding any public hearings yet.

The probe into Scotland's response to the coronavirus pandemic was set up last February.

Officials said the Scottish inquiry has incurred a range of start-up costs including IT systems and premises.

The independent inquiry, which is funded by the Scottish government, has faced a number of delays including the resignation of chairwoman Lady Poole.

Lady Poole was replaced by Lord Brailsford and the inquiry is currently collecting the experiences of members of the public and how they thought the Scottish government handled the health crisis.

• Read more here

Jane Morrison is speaking about forming a specific group formed for bereaved families Scotland.

She says the group started in March 2021 and was fully separated, from the UK-wide group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice by October 2022.

Morrison says the aims were similar the main UK group and that the then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave her commitment to the group for a Scottish public inquiry.

Jane Morrison is being asked about her wife, Jacky, who died from Covid after contracting the illness in hospital.

She says her wife had been in hospital for another separate disease for two weeks and caught Covid on her 15th day there. She was due to leave sooner, but a delay in scans meant she needed to be there longer.

Morrison says it wasn't clear at the beginning what Jacky had contracted. Clinicians at the hospital did a battery of tests, and the Covid test came back positive.

It was clear to Morrison that her wife caught Covid in hospital and she sadly died just five days after contracting the disease.

Morrison says she was able to be in hospital with her wife as she died, but she needed to go into immediate quarantine after Jacky's death - which made her feel incredibly isolated.

Jane Morrison begins her evidence with a short statement thanking those that have expressed their condolences with genuine sincerity.

She also thanks all the key workers who took that "extra, often small, compassionate step".

"It's a moment of kindness in a dark world."

Image source, Jane Morrison

The next witness this morning is Jane Morrison from Crieff in Scotland, whose wife Jacky died from hospital-acquired Covid in 2020.

Ms Morrison told BBC Scotland she does not want any other people to go through what she has gone through.

"Where things have gone wrong, we can hopefully tell people about them and make suggestions for how it could can be improved."

Ms Morrison, from Scottish Covid Bereaved, said the group were also keen to highlight areas of good practice they had come across.

The campaigner branded Boris Johnson's response to the damning Privileges Committee report "pathetic".

She said the scandal was a "slap in the face" for the public.

• You can read more here

Matthew Fowler says the work of the group has taken up "most of my life over the last few years" but it's "not something I regret".

"I'd do it again in a heart-beat.

"We need to learn lessons and learn about the things that went wrong."

He has now finished giving evidence and the inquiry is taking a 10 minute break.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

One subject which has come up a number of times in this first phase of the inquiry is the abuse experienced by people affected by Covid or working on the pandemic response.

Matthew Fowler from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said that members of his group had been "stalked, abused and in some cases threatened" after appearances in the media.

He said much of the abuse has been on social media but there have been examples of face-to-face abuse as well.

"If my dad died from cancer, people wouldn't say, 'was it really cancer," he told the inquiry.

"There is something unique to our loss to be targeted in that way."

Mr Fowler's words echo similar comments from Sir Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer and one of the most recognisable faces of the pandemic.

In his evidence to the inquiry last month he said that threats to independent experts could undermine responses to disasters in the future.

Matthew Fowler, who co-founded the Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice Campaign, says his group have a number of concerns, including testing in hospital and infection control.

They also included the provision of PPE to hospital staff, the protection of in-patients and the risks of infection.

Fowler highlights hospital protocols and the movement of patients, as well as out of date PPE.

He mentions hospital staff having to stay in tents in their gardens to avoid exposing their families to risks.

He says the same "horror stories" were repeated again and again and were traumatic to all concerned.

Fowler is now speaking of the criticisms and many attacks he has received on social media, both on behalf of Covid Bereaved Families for Justice and towards him in particular.

Fowler says some people have gone out of their way to seek people out.

"We've had people who have made media appearances talking about their loss who have then been stalked via social media and abused, and in some cases threatened."

Fowler says he believes that if his dad had died of something else, such as cancer, people wouldn't have been doubting whether or not his father had cancer. He says the abuse experienced by him and others is specific to people's attitude towards Covid.

Fowler says his father was an incredibly popular man and it was an immense pain to those who loved him to not be able to attend his funeral.

He explains that due to the restrictions at the time, he had to be cremated in hospital in his hospital gown.

"It's not dignified for someone making their final journey," Fowler says.

No more than 10 people were allowed to attend and there was no opportunity for an open casket.

Despite this, about 300 people lined the streets for the procession.

"It was quite moving," Fowler says.

Matthew Fowler says his father started showing symptoms of Covid around 18 or 19 March in 2020.

He says he "tried not to make a fuss" initially but he was taken into hospital where he tested positive for Covid.

Eventually his condition "swan-dived" and he was intubated and then the hospital staff fought daily for him, he says.

Fowler says: "Sadly dad didn't make it."

He tells the inquiry his father died on 13 April.

Some of the stories you hear today from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice groups today might be upsetting.

Baroness Heather Hallett reminded Matthew Fowler to take a break at any time.

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